National attention to Perry County

The New York Times has posted a story by Michael Cooper on stimulus funds for jobs in Perry County, much like the piece by Bonna Johnson in TheTennesseanSunday, with the Times likening what’s happening there to FDR’s New Deal.

The Times says,

Rather than waiting for big projects to be planned and awarded to construction companies, or for tax cuts to trickle through the economy, state officials hit upon a New Deal model of trying to put people directly to work as quickly as possible.”

Referring to the vast Works Progress Administration, the story quotes Gov. Phil Bredesen as saying, “If I could have done a W.P.A. out there, I would have done a W.P.A. out there.”